Archive

PFC REMEMBERS NEW SINN FEIN COUNCILLOR'S GRANDFATHER

PFC | 12 January 2018

As Sinn Fein prepares to co-opt Ryan Murphy onto Belfast City Council, the PFC remembers his grandfather, Terry McCafferty, who was shot dead by the UDA in Newtownabbey using a gun taken from a British Army base in Lurgan in 1972. The same weapon was used to kill 16-year-old Henry Cunningham on his...

Sean Dalton- Fact file

Background to the 'Good Samaritan' case | 16 March 2018

Sean Dalton died when an IRA booby trapped bomb exploded on 31st August 1988 in Kildrum Gardens in Creggan, Derry. Sheila Lewis was also killed instantly, and Gerard Curran died of his injuries 7 months later. They had gone to check on a neighbour who hadn’t been seen in a few days, and on entering...

Ireland v UK 2018

Judgement of ECHR | 20 March 2018

ECHR have rejected application by Irish Government to revise the original judgement in the Hooded Men case ROI v UK 1978. The 1978 judgement found that the treatment constituted inhuman & degrading treatment, but not torture. Today the ECHR has upheld that judgement 6-1 (Judge O'Leary dissenting- se...

The Pat Finucane Centre at Féile an Phobail 2017

British Lies to European Court Paved Way for Global Use of Torture

Tom Griffin/Open Democracy | 25 July 2017

When the European Court ruled that detainees in Northern Ireland were NOT tortured but only subjected to "inhuman and degrading" treatment, it gave the green light to other regimes worldwide. New evidence shows the court's ruling was based on false evidence - yet people are still being tortured toda...

"Becoming an Orphan: Losing Both My Parents And My Idyllic County Tyrone Childhood"

Eamon Devlin/Peter Carroll (for Unison Active) | 04 September 2017

Eamon Devlin, his two brothers and their sister, Patricia, lost both parents in an attack on their home in County Tyrone in May 1974. Gertrude and James Devlin were victims of the so-called "Glenanne Gang" whose members included RUC and UDR men. Here, Eamon tells his story to Peter Carroll for the U...

Families Bereaved By The Glenanne Gang Still Waiting To Hear From PSNI

Pat Finucane Centre/Justice for the Forgotten | 05 September 2017

FAMILIES WAIT TO HEAR FROM PSNI Five weeks since the High Court ordered the PSNI to meet with the Glenanne families, nothing has been heard. The deadline of 4 September has passed without a word from the PSNI hierarchy or their lawyers. By now, an agreement should have been reached on a way forward.

PFC submission to Committee of Ministers re McKerr & ors v UK

21 Sept 2017 | 21 September 2017

Below is the PFC's recent submission to the Committee of Ministers concerning the McKerr group of cases. We have also attached the statement by the Irish Government to the CoM and their response issued today. Copies of other useful documents can be found on the Council of Europe website and the deci...

Lord Chief Justice admits: "We are breaking the law"

PFC Press Release | 05 September 2016

Families bereaved in the conflict are today witnessing the most senior judge in this jurisdiction publicly admitting his office is breaking the law. This is the only possible conclusion arising from a speech by the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Declan Morgan, given at the opening of the new legal year.

Torture Retold: How the Hooded Men case has come back under the spotlight

Rita O'Reilly, Irish Times | 12 June 2014

It was January 31st, 1972, the day after Bloody Sunday. The head of the army department in the British Ministry of Defence, John M Parkin wrote to the Chief of Staff, Northern Ireland, Brigadier Marston Tickell, seeking the facts on more than 100 allegations of torture and inhuman and degrading trea...

Amnesty International urges action by UK and Irish governments

Amnesty International Press Release | 24 November 2014

‘A request to the European Court must be lodged within the next two weeks. The clock is ticking’ - Colm O’Gorman. Allegations that the UK government sanctioned the use of torture and ill-treatment in Northern Ireland in the 1970s should be re-examined by the European Court of Human Rights and subjec...

Cruel Britannia: A Secret History of Torture, By Ian Cobain

The Hooded Men

Press release KRW LAW LLP | 24 November 2011

KRW LAW LLP is instructed by a number of The Hooded Men, those interned by the British government in August 1971. These 12 men became the guinea pigs in the British army’s deployment of ‘deep interrogation’ or what has become known as The Five Techniques. These techniques had been developed in the p...